Go Placidly
by willoffire.3264
Summary: In which a Time Traveller crashes from space into a certain Shinji Ikari's back garden and is never heard from again, while aforementioned Shinji becomes - as is inevitable in this sort of thing - awesome, manly and flawless.
1. Introduction

This is just a little project of mine, which I decided to type up on a whim, but which might actually turn out quite well (unlike anything else I write for/about).

Of course when I say 'of mine', I'm not claiming ownership of Intellectual Property which belongs to other people, such as Evangelion, or Desiderata. I also don't own the International Space Station (ISS) in any way, shape or form. However, the Characters appearing in this known as 'Jon' and 'Tom' are both of my creation.

Word, grammar and spell checking for this have, as ever, been provided by the generous and enigmatic Loki, who makes sure what I write actually makes and sense, and is written in English, not a mess of random letters. If you DO find any mistakes, that'd probably be my fault, as Loki generally has little time to go over these and you shouldn't blame him if he misses a word or two.  
Also, if there's an account anywhere called Loki, that's not my spell checker. He doesn't normally go by that name, it's just what I choose to call him.

That cleared that up? Good.

On with the Show, as they say.

On another subject, I am grateful to _'amitakartok'_ for reviewing this and telling me to do something I should have done all along. In his words; _"That said, you might want to separate your wall-o-text into paragraphs. Just saying."_

Or in my words; _**"USE DAMN PARAGRAPHS!"**_

So yeah, I've TRIED to fix that one.

* * *

The trees fell as the smoke cleared. The black trail through the sky slowly dispersed, as the silhouette of a human slowly rising from the ground cut through the grey mist backlit by the burning pile of rock, wood and metal that had fallen from orbit. The man coughed, before calling out, "Tom! Are you alright? Tom?"

Another figure rose through the smoke, far taller than a human should be, and as the dirty fog cleared, the metal of his armour shone in the bright, clear daytime that the area was typically blessed with almost all year round. The mass of the upper armour only made the relatively small legs look stupid, or rather it would have, if there hadn't been four of them. "I am intact." Tom replied in flat, but human sounding English.  
"Ah, good" his shorter companion replied. "Now we just need to find out when and where we are." He looked up at the helmeted and visored head of his 8 or 9 foot tall companion "Any ideas big guy?"  
Tom's armour clacked and creaked as he shifted and looked around. "Well, Jon, from the look of it, late 20th, early 21st century Earth, wrong technology for any other time, right general biosphere and geological features for Earth. Tropical climate. A lot of ocean. Very natural. Seems like a small island, likely Caribbean."  
The man he had called Jon was impressed, but not greatly. "Tropical, yes, Caribbean, no. You focus too much on natural elements and not stylistic choices made by the locals. The architecture says Japan, even if the latitude says not. Actually, what the hell is with that? This place is basically Japan at the equator! What, are we in some alternate timeline where the Axis won World War 2, and this is some equatorial Pacific island affected by that? And what's with the ruins of modern looking buildings? The flooded towers, the... Oh dear." Jon looked towards the young boy drawing cautiously towards the wreck, and, though he was still out of earshot by a long way, and the smoke was still clearing, suddenly went quiet. Tom slowly looked towards the boy, before replying; "I recognise him."  
Jon turned to face him, and quietly said "Yes, as do I. We'll have some trouble if this goes badly. Also, we should probably switch into Japanese now, before he approaches us and gets suspicious."  
Tom stepped back slightly. "While I understand some words of that language, I am not well versed in it's order, grammar, structuring and other such bases of linguistics."  
Jon smirked at a joke that only he knew the punch line to. "Not that different from your own. If in doubt, run it through a translator. Preferably one that actually works."  
Tom backed off "Right. I should be out of sight anyway given my nature."  
Jon nodded. "Indeed, old friend."

An eight year old Shinji Ikari slowly walked towards the burning pile of debris that had crashed behind the house he was living in, but that he was reluctant to call home. He'd been dumped there, and while the town was a nice place to live, with nice people, he'd still been dumped there. He'd been shaken from his Cello practice by the loud explosion and the sensation of the world shaking. He hadn't thought that that actually happened during explosions until now. Or maybe it was just a meteorite thing. Who knew? Walking around the back of his residence, remembering that his caretaker had told him to make sure nothing bad happened to himself or the house while they walked to the local shops, and watching the smoke trail fade, Shinji assured himself that he was safe from being blamed for a so-called 'Act of God' and assumed that whatever crashed was just some space-junk from before the second impact that had happened to choose now to fall. When he got close, he realised that he was wrong. The hunk of rock and metal that had ruined a perfectly good portion of forest wasn't from before the Second Impact. The stark red, flaking paint of the metal didn't look like any pre-impact space station he'd ever heard of, and the rock it was embedded in looked like it had been in space a long time, the side of it that had been shielded from the heat of re-entry by the sheer mass of the rest of it was covered in craters from smaller debris impacting on it.

Shinji looked up towards the top of the lump of blackened brown rock and red metal, and it was at this moment the figure resting atop the boiling hot space junk dropped down, and promptly started to converse, with him. "Hello. This might sound a bit strange to you..." Shinji stopped for a moment, before his curiosity got the better of him. "What will?" The figure smiled back at him. "I was hoping that you'd say that. Because the answer is everything that I am about to say, this included. But that part was just due to the strange structuring and the fact that I'm not used to talking in your native language." The crazy-haired but smartly dressed man before him stated in a strained and poorly constructed spiel of Japanese. "The rest is because I'm a half-British half-alien that rambles madly instead of merely talking, and travels, or rather falls haphazardly, through time and alternate dimensions. Really, when I say it like that, all I'd need is a large blue, spatial logic defy box and I could almost be... No, no, no, I'm diverging from my intended subject."  
Shinji just stared silently at the pacing figure for a while as they both thought, before something clicked in Shinji. "Wait. Run that by me again. Half alien? And half British?" The man turned and smiled at him, slightly madly, but also in a knowledgeable yet somehow endearing way. "Yep. I am in roughly half-parts scarily adaptable alien compatible with human life, and human. Don't let my human appearance fool you, that's just because a race that is adaptable and compatible with other forms of life generally has to be willing to lose dominance over general function in hybrids, or crossbreeds, or whatever you want to call me, so that they actually work, that is to say live, survive, as a being."  
Shinji ran that through his brain again, trying to sort the weirdness and bad phrasing out. After a moment of silence, he realised that it was impossible, and tried for a basic summary."So you're a half-human, who happened to end up here because you happen to be randomly flung through time?"  
The man nodded slowly. "Pretty much. Well time and space. In this case that lump of junk behind me was responsible for the space part, and who knows how I ended up travelling through time."  
Shinji let it mull for a bit, before trying to compose his response into a more polite form, and failing utterly. But then again, why should he extend common courtesy towards someone that had just ruined the forest behind his house? "And why is this a more credible story that you being a mad man?"  
The man laughed at this. Not rudely, not loudly, not softly, just laughed. It seemed a good-natured laugh. "Oh, I am a mad man, but not very mad, and not very man. So not a very apt descriptor, but what is an apt descriptor for me, or at least me as I would have you believe I am?"  
After he cut through the tangle of grammar, Shinji started to think of something, anything. "I... There is none." he conceded, before the other man got ready to start up with his disordered spiel again, and continue swerving all over the place linguistically. "Exactly. But besides that... You know, this sounded a lot better as contingency 12 in my head."  
That one got Shinji. The man had always talked seriously, but not in any order, just when his mind got round to thinking about it. Not like he'd planned it. "What do you mean?"  
The man just sighed. "I mean, I have some set scenarios pre-designed for hypothetical events. Falling through dimensions is one of these events, and one scenario is basically: I have just fallen onto an alternate version of a planet that I have been to or know about, on an asteroid or some such thing, and I am now conversing with a person, or several persons, that I know the fate of due to the virtue of being from a universe where knowledge that transcends time, so to speak, has allowed me to see their future."  
The man just glanced at Shinji's stunned look. "No, really, that is the outline of one of my scenarios. And let me tell you, you are going to be a great person some day. Not that anyone will ever appreciate it, but you will be. And when the time comes, though you might run away, you will always return. I hope you have a good life. And while I have seen a version of your future, I believe that nothing is pre-determined, especially as I didn't see this happening to either of us. Good luck, go placidly and all that."  
Shinji took a while to soak all that information up, and the man just waited for a reply, which Shinji provided, in the form of a question. "Go placidly?"

The man sighed again. "You've never heard of Desiderata? I'll print you off a copy. It was created in English, so I'll translate it for you. Actually, you know what, I'll leave you with a copy in English and Japanese. You know how stuff tends to get lost in translation, with one wrong arbitrary word choice leading to a host of misconceptions and... Well, sometimes it's good to keep the original, incase someone who knows how to read it gives you new insight to the original meaning. I hope our meeting has been surreal enough to prepare you for what will come. You will be a slayer of monsters, no matter how ridiculous that sounds right now. A hero among men. Just remember that even if you have to run away, you mustn't ever give up." He walked off to open a hatch on the red metal part of the wreck, and typed on a terminal for a bit. After a few seconds, a print out was ejected and fell into his waiting hands. Returning to him, the man placed the paper in Shinji's hands before turning to leave. After a few steps he stopped and turned back. "Oh yeah, and if you ever feel compelled to request a sword for your self-defence, do yourself and everyone else a favour, and ask for a Claymore and not a Katana."  
Despite not knowing what a claymore was, Shinji just nodded. Walking back to Shinji, the man continued; "I'll write the original word, the English translation, and it's pronunciation, relative to your language, on the back of that piece of paper, just in case." Which he proceeded to do, with a pencil that he seemed to have drawn from nowhere.

While he was writing, he changed track with what he was saying "And the 'Without surrender' part of the poem? If you do not obey that I will personally find you and break your kneecaps." He smiled, but in a friendly manner, not maliciously. "Now I just have to figure out how to get this damn thing back into space and replace it with a part of the ISS before your parents or guardians get home. How long do I have exactly?"  
Ignoring the dubious part about breaking kneecaps, largely due to the overall air of self-mocking the man had put on during that segment, Shinji replied like he was talking to something this man was clearly not, that is to say a normal human being. "About five minutes."  
The man frowned slightly. "Well then, I guess I'd better hurry. Go on then. Shoo!" Shinji turned back and walked back into his house, wondering what the hell had just happened. Still, afterwards, he went back to his Cello. To his amazement, four minutes later, there was another shaking, and when he went out back to check, the remains of the inter-dimensional time-traveller's ride to Earth had been replaced with a large chunk of classically designed pre-impact satellite. But his printout was still here, so Shinji was left to suppose that what had just happened really was what the spaceman had said it was. Turning to the paper, Shinji started reading...

Meanwhile, far, far away from him a tall man with crazy hair turned to his taller, heavily armoured companion. "You know, it's funny, most of the time I leave people with Battleaxes, but I supose that in this context a poem is better."

_A.D. 2015 (6 Years later)-_

Shinji was relatively happy. He'd studied hard and quietly for the best part of five or six years, graduating high school around three years early. He had continued with higher education on and off for the past half-year or so as he tried to find an honest profession, that required hard work, be it physical or mental. Carpentry, building, electronics and plumbing were important, but widely popular and less intellectual fields of honest work. Shinji had tried his hand at each, but electrical wiring made him scared he'd get himself, or worse, someone else, electrocuted, and plumbing was a dirty job. The carpentry had gone well though, but in the age of glass and steel few wanted someone skilled in woodwork. Shinji had also found himself good with an anvil, if a little lacking in the strength he'd acquire as he grew older, but once again, who needed a blacksmith in these modern times? He'd worked in some shops, but in the end the managers tended to agree with him that he just wasn't a people person. He was good at taking inventory of things though, but while that would have been useful pre-impact, now it just reminded him of how empty the world was. It seemed that there was no place in the world that he could fill. 'No place that I've found yet' Shinji consoled himself as he returned home after studying casually at a local library. He had decided that he'd try to get further through education before he tried to get a job, and in the rest of the year before any college or such would open to new students, he could browse available places to study in the area, apply, and build his knowledge in an area of his taste. Pre-impact world history seemed appropriate, especially history ranging far back. Feudal Japan, the Kings of England, the empires of China, and Rome, the discovery of America, the civil wars, Russian, American, French, Spanish and English, The Great War and World War Two. Humans just kept on making mistakes, ones he didn't intend to repeat. He also needed to build up his physical abilities. He hadn't let them become dull as he studied, but honing his mind had been his focus.

As he opened the door to his room, he noticed the envelope on his table, with a note left by his guardian. 'This arrived for you while you were out studying this morning. It looks pretty official, so you'd probably do well to open it quickly. See you this evening after work, if this is as important as it seems, we can discuss it over dinner. I trust your Judgement.' Happy with the note, Shinji turned to reading the letter itself, and his attitude changed from quiet contentment, to quiet contempt. Still, he owed his father for this attempt to make social contact, even if it seemed that his father had only been asked to write the message personally by virtue of the fact that his work happened to require his son. Shinji scoffed, before going out behind his house to quietly meditate on what this meant. He sat in the now green crater, looking at the various styles of statue and sculpture he had crafted from the trees around. He'd even cut some of them down himself, but that had made him feel bad for the trees, and afterwards he just found fallen trunks and worked with them instead. _'As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.'_ Even now, thinking about that line cheered him up and he heard in his head, as clear as day; _"If you do not obey that I will personally find you and break your kneecaps."_ Still, it helped him choose a course of action, his father may have abandoned him, but he was still a human. And as a human, he deserved some measure of respect, no matter how small. And so that respect would be as good a reason as any for Shinji to leave for New Tokyo 3. He started to pack right after his decision, and readied a fair well speech for his teacher, guardian, and, once Shinji had gained enough experience of the world, friend.

He put down the phone that was reminding him that some sort of state of emergency was in effect, as if the sirens and deserted streets hadn't been enough. It would have been a good measure to provide basic information along with the generic alert the phones gave. He'd have to see about getting them to change that, it could save lives. He sat on the ground by the phone. His Rendezvous was late and while he looked up and down the road before he closed his eyes, he saw a girl with red eyes and light blue hair. Though the wind rattled the grates around him, and the birds called out and flew off, he kept eye contact. He saw two missiles whistle past him, but he still watched her. She hadn't been there a moment before. Then, as he watched, the girl simply stopped being there. What did it mean? He exhaled deeply, closed his eyes for a second. _'And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.'_ He decided to find out just how exactly the universe was unfolding. Screw the military, a spectral girl was more important that some live-fire drill or... Then the roar happened. He turned for a second. That roar was... Unearthly. Turning his head, he saw...

_"You will be a slayer of monsters,"_

Oh by the Gods.

_"...no matter how ridiculous that sounds right now."_

That was it.

_"A hero among men."_

What he'd meant.

_"Just remember that even if you have to run away,"_

The time was coming.

_"...You mustn't ever give up."_

He would have to stand.


	2. Part 1: A Slight Divergence

Loki Hasn't checked this, but when he reads it, I have no doubt that he'll find mistakes for me to correct. Joy!  
Also, if anyone who's surname isn't Ikari seems a bit... Wrong... That's not an artistic statement on the nature of humanity and the frailty of life. That's bad writing.  
Also, also, this update would have been more timely if I hadn't had my laptop crash when it was half complete. I've only just recovered the files, which I'd been working on for a few days after I'd finished the introduction. I though I'd have it done within the week. It took me around three months.

There is no battle at the end of this, as in the original series that was Episode 2's job, and baring the introduction, I'm sticking to that format for a bit. So after removing the beginning, end, and all non-Shinji scenes from Episode 1 of Evangelion, and making Shinji a bit less spineless, there isn't much left, sorry.

* * *

_Episode 1; 'A Slight __Divergence'_

The gunship that had crashed beside him was stepped on by the... Thing, then exploded.  
He wasn't ready.  
The car skidded to a halt beside him, as the creature took down yet more VTOLs.  
He couldn't be ready for this, ever.  
The driver flung the passenger's side door open.  
That was what he'd have to fight?  
After it was clear that Shinji wasn't moving, the driver yelled to him "Are you awake there? Get in!" Looking at her, Shinji saw that it was the woman he was supposed to be meeting.  
She nodded at him, before speaking again. "Ah, good. Sorry I'm late! Now get in!"  
Scrambling into the car, Shinji kept his eyes on the monstrosity's feet as the driver whipped her car around them. Shinji turned to her, and struggled to pull a question together. After a minute, he'd recovered enough to speak. "I... What was that?"  
She didn't turn, just focused on driving. "An Angel. If you excuse me, I'll explain later, right now I'm more concerned with surviving."

They got away fairly quickly, and after a short while the driver stopped to get a better view of the battle as the Angel walked away from them. Pulling out binoculars, leaning over Shinji and out of the passenger's side window. "What? They're recalling the Gunships..."  
Shinji looked up at her. "You think they're going to call in something big?"  
"Yes, an N2 weapon, get down!" She said, almost shouted, forcing Shinji down as a column of light erupted in the distance, past the ridge the angel had just walked over.

The smoke cleared, as Shinji and the woman sent to collect him climbed out of her ruined car. "So, are we safe enough from the remains of that 'Angel' for you to tell me what's going on?"  
She turned to him. "It's not dead yet. We don't know much about them, but that won't kill one."  
Taking her glasses off, smiled slightly. "It'll delay it at best. But all we need is a delay. Now help me push this back onto its wheels would you?"  
Together they pushed the car from on its side to upright, before she turned to him again, dusting off her hands. "Thanks for that. It would have been a lot harder to do alone."  
Shinji smiled weakly. "You wouldn't be in this mess if you didn't have to pick me up, so no problem. Also, you kinda just saved my life, so thank you Miss Katsuragi."  
Katsuragi returned smile. "Welcome. And it's Misato. You wanted to know about the angels?"

Shinji listened intently to what Misato had to say about the angels, until they had to scavenge a battery to keep the car going. That then led to an... Interesting conversation between the two of them.  
Misato turned to him, snarling. "If this runs out, I'll..."  
"Don't continue, you'll probably say something that you'll regret." Shinji quickly cut in, before continuing; "Besides, people need those."  
Misato spoke slowly, and aggressively. "I'm a UN official, taking you to NERV, the organisation that has to save everyone's asses. I think I'm allowed to take some batteries!"  
Shini softly dismissed the comment. "Legally, maybe. Morally, not really."  
"Not really?" Misato gestured angrily at the lone car battery behind her. "If this one runs out, having taken another might have saved people's lives!"  
Shinji smiled slightly at her. "Yes, and if this one runs out, we can steal another."  
"It's not stealing!" Misato snarled quietly back.  
"Yes it is." Shinji replied calmly.

Shinji slowly gathered his thoughts in the silence that followed, only interrupted once by Misato making a phone call. Misato hadn't said much about the angels. What she had said sounded like the plot to some science fiction book or something. Humanity accidentally awakens aliens, creates world-wide cover up and then prepares for aliens to return, aliens return to attack humanity fifteen years later. Pretty simple. Shinji wouldn't be surprised to find out that it too was a cover-up for something else, and NERV didn't seem to trust it's own staff with the truth, a point supported by how he had been collected.

"I still don't see what this has to do with me." Shinji had said to Misato after she'd finished explaining it to him.  
"I don't either." She'd replied. "It's not like command has told me anything other than to go and collect you." Shinji was sure that he'd find out soon enough. He also hoped he'd find out what NERV planned to fight the angels with, because Misato hadn't elaborated on that point, and with that thing walking towards Tokyo 3, the issue seemed rather pressing.

The single battery that Shinji had allowed Misato to steal held out long enough for them to reach Tokyo 3, where something like a cable car was waiting to take them deep underground into...  
"What... What is that?" Shinji was stunned by the aerial view of a massive dome-shaped cave. A cave big enough to have a lake in it. How the hell did they light it?  
"The Geofront. At the centre is NERV headquarters, the bastion against the foes of humanity." Misato smiled at him. "Say, on the subject of NERV, did you receive an ID card?"  
"Yes. Right here." He presented it to Misato.  
She went over it, and was quiet for a while, before eventually talking to Shinji again.. "You don't say much, do you?"  
"Only what I feel is necessary."  
Misato put her hands behind her neck, leaned back, and rolled her eyes at him. "Great, just what we need, another Rei,"  
Shinji turned back to face her. "I'm sorry, what do you mean?"  
"Rei. She's our current pilot. The First Child."  
"Pilot? First Child?"  
Misato went to say something, but then caught herself. "Ah... Never mind, you'll be told of everything you need to know when we arrive."

When they did arrive, the first thing that Misato did was get them both lost.  
She'd been talking about how she was new here and was still having trouble finding her way round when Shinji finally realised that it would be probably be kindest to tell her that they were going round in circles rather than let her find out for herself. "I don't mean to be rude, but this looks awfully similar to a spot we passed several minutes ago."  
Misato sighed at him. "It would, wouldn't it? You're trying to tell me that it's the same place, right?"  
Shinji bowed his head slightly. "No, I'm just implying that it looks a bit familiar..."

Not long later they came to an elevator that Misato was sure would lead them where they needed to go. It stopped shortly after they had gotten in, and a tall blond woman had entered. Shinji largely ignored her, as she and Misato seemed to know each other and have things to discuss, but when he heard her say "This is the boy then?" Shinji couldn't stop himself from interrupting them.  
"No, no I am not 'The Boy', but I am in fact a boy, and may even be the one you are referring to, however if that is the case then you should probably know, and therefore use, my name."  
The woman sighed. "Just like your father. Fine then, I presume you are Shinji?"  
Shinji nodded. "Yes I am, Mrs...?"  
The woman sniffed. "Doctor. Dr. Ritsuko Akagi."  
He extended his hand. "Pleased to meet you Dr. Akagi."  
She shook it. "I take it back Shinji, you're warmer than your father, at least."  
He sighed at her. "I like to think so. But my patience wares thin after surviving an alien attack, being brought here, getting lost, and being treated as though I don't exist by someone I don't even know."  
Akagi smiled slightly. "That would be Angel attack. And I think your father has some big reveal planned, you'll find everything out soon enough now you have someone who actually knows where they're going."  
Shinji heard Misato mutter something like "Thanks a bunch, Rits." under her breath.

It wasn't long before they reached a dark chamber. "Big reveal, huh?" Shinji said to himself as the door closed behind them. He'd quietly listened to what Misato had talked to Dr. Akagi about, but hadn't been able to make much out. Something about activation, presumably of a weapon to kill the thing impersonating Godzilla out there, something made more likely by the fact that Misato said something about it being a bit late for it to fail now.  
The lights in the chamber came on. It was massive, and sitting in the liquid to the side of the bridge that he was standing on, Shinji saw an equally massive head, and the shadow of the body that it was attached to. "Quite impressive father." He said aloud. "But you should know that blue is more of my colour."  
The response came to him in an electronic version his father's cold, level voice."The Evangelions were not designed for your personal amusement."  
Shinji turned to look up at the source of the sound. Gendo Ikari was standing in what seemed to be an observation deck overlooking the bay that the Evangelion was sitting in. "What, can't I make a joke without it being taken at face value? More importantly, that's the weapon that you made to fight the alien out there? A giant Robot?"  
Akagi stepped in. "Angel, not alien, and the Evangelions are not robots. However, it would not be incorrect to call them cyborgs. They are humanity's ultimate weapon, synthetic humanoids."  
"Cyborg? You mean that there's something organic in there?"  
Akagi sighed. "Organic is a bit of a misnomer, but it does have biological components, yes."  
Gendo cut though the conversation. "Enough of this. We're moving out."  
"Not just yet. Why did you bring me here?" Shinji replied.  
Gendo smiled ever so slightly. "Isn't it obvious? To pilot it."  
Shinji was stunned. "I... Give me time..."  
Gendo frowned. "We don't have time."  
The reply was stuttered. "Just... Just a minute."

Gendo stopped speaking out over the cage below him. "Fuyutsuki. The spare's taking too long. Give me a line to Rei."  
A screen cut to a view of his second in command. "Surely she can't pilot as she is?"  
Gendo sneered. "She isn't dead yet."  
Shinji stared up at him, "What do you mean, she isn't dead yet!?"  
But Gendo just ignored him as the link to Fuyutsuki ended, the video being replaced with black screen with 'sound only' on it in red.  
"Rei." He said softly.  
"Yes." The audio feed replied.  
"The spare is inadequate. We'll need you to pilot."  
Once again, a blank yes replied.

Shinji kept looking up at Gendo after he had cut in, but now Gendo had cut the speakers so he couldn't hear anything. Their current pilot, Misato had called her. Well at least he knew what she'd meant now. But she wasn't dead yet, what was that supposed to mean?  
Shinji soon found out. Some sort of medical bed was wheeled out with... "You..." Shinji heard himself say softly, as the Girl he'd seen on his way to meet Misato passed him, and started to get off the bed, stopping to shiver in pain.  
"Blackmail, is it?" Shinji turned to call up to his father. "Fine. I'll play your game."  
He walked up to where the girl was getting off the bed, and slowly put her back on to it. "I've met you before. I wonder if you remember."  
But she couldn't speak to reply. She might not even be able to hear him.  
Turning back to his father, Shinji continued. "Go on then, set it up, I'm ready."  
Akagi spoke into an intercom, which apparently could pick up sound from anywhere in the room. "Configure Unit 01 for a new pilot. Get ready for some tests before the Angel arrives and..."  
For the second time in his life, Shinji felt the earth beneath him shake.  
Gendo looked towards the roof of the chamber. "It must know where we are..."

Sitting in the entry plug, the apparently breathable lcl washed over him. He'd have minutes, if not seconds, to deal with the angel when he got to the surface. Feeling the warm, thick, fluid flow into his lungs, Shinji relaxed and thought about what he'd have to do. He didn't even know how to pilot the thing, and he was already being forced to use it to fight the thing out there with it. 'Hey' Shinji felt the sound, rather than heard it. 'I did say you'd be a slayer of monsters. Or something.'  
Shinji looked around. "I... Did someone just say something?"  
One of the techs in the control room looked around. "I was just reading off some feeds..."  
Shinji nodded. "Yes, but did anyone say something directed towards me specifically? Like, directed to me and me alone?"  
Misato and the Techs glanced at each other for a bit, before the building shook again, making Shinji rapidly dismiss his previous statement.  
"You know what, never mind. Just get me out there and fighting."

They'd told him some basics on movement and combat before he launched, as they had a few empty moments before the angel reached the city to begin it's attacks afresh. Shinji was wondering why they described it as launch as the Eva that he was in slowly moved towards something ominously referred to as the launching rails. A few seconds later, he found out as he was propelled to his fate at tremendous speed. He arrived at the surface just as the alien rounded a corner, and turned to face him.

Remember what they said.  
Remember how to fight.  
Remember that you can't afford to fail.

And remember, always, that life is worth fighting for.


	3. Part 2: The Split

_Episode 2, Part 1 of 2; 'The Split'_

As the releases snapped off of Eva-01's shoulder pylons, it's body slouched, but soon it was upright, and slowly lowering it's body, stablising it's centre of mass.  
"Synchronisation stable at 63%!"  
"We might be able to do this!"  
"Good work Shinji! You seem to be getting a feel for piloting the Eva."  
Unit one slowly took a step forwards, towards the angel before it, maintaining it's stance. Another step, slowly but surely. And another. Slowly, steadily, Shinji built up the Eva's speed, forcing himself to focus on how it's legs felt. The phantom pressure of the ground beneath the Eva's feet layered on top of the feeling of his shoes on his own feet.  
"Synchronisation climbing!"  
Forcing himself to concentrate on the Eva's movements even more, Shinji didn't notice that he'd removed his left hand from the controls, and drawn it back into a fist, a fist matching the fist that the Eva had just drawn it's hand back into.  
Now moving barely faster walking pace, but still building speed, the Eva advanced on the Angel which stood before it passively. When the Eva started to throw it's punch, it was barely jogging, but it was still steady. It was then that Shinji felt two things at once. A feeling that something was off, and a feeling that he had massive headache coming on.  
He'd not been trained beyond basics about piloting the Eva, and he had no idea how he should be synchronising to it beyond forcefully imposing his will on it's body, and that was taking it's toll on him. Something he did know how to do, however, was fight, and from his knowledge of fighting techniques he knew the Angel would counter his loose left hook, and that it would probably be very painful.

And counter his punch is exactly what Sachiel did, catching Unit One's giant left hand in it's larger claws, before firmly fixing it's other hand over the purple monster's face, and trying to pull it apart. Inside the entry plug, Shinji screamed.  
"That's not your arm, it's just the feedback!"  
Gritting his teeth, Shinji replied. "Yes, yes it is my arm. It is an arm that I am in control of, and therefore it is my arm. And it most cirtainly isn't. Your. Arm."  
With these words, he drew his Eva's free right arm up to it's left, and started trying to pull it from the angel's grasp. Realising that the best he could settle for was preventing it from being broken, he took refuge in the fact that at least the Angel couldn't attack him either.  
This notion was blown out of his mind as he felt his Eva being lifted by it's head from the ground.  
"It appears to be charging some sort of weapon!"  
"Shinji, dodge it!"  
"How do you expect me to do that!?"  
"Cut Synchronisation!"  
"No, it's unresponsive enough as it is, I'll just weather the storm!"  
And with those words, the storm started, as the ram-like blast of energy that the angel's forearms could produce repeatedly struck the Eva's Head. Shinji half-smiled though the pain. "So that's the way that it's going to be, huh?"  
Lifting his Eva's legs into the air, before bracing himself against the Angel, as he snapped the Eva's arm free of the Angel's grip. Seconds later it's grip returned to a point higher up his arm, but it was enough.  
Placing his hand either side of the Angel's strange bone-like mask, and bracing both the Eva's legs against it, Shinji streched, feeling the Angel's mask start to snap under the strain.  
The creaking of the Angel's mask matched the snapping noises coming from the Eva's head, as it's armour was pounded by Sachiel's glowing arm spike.

Finally, the strain on both was too much to bare, as Unit One flew off of the angel with the combined force of it's attack, and the Eva's own strength. Clutching at the small prize that he'd won, Shinji backed off from the tall form before his Eva.  
"Crainial Armour has totally given way!" A tech shouted to the others monitoring the battle.  
"One more hit, and the Eva's brains will be all over the surrounding area!" A tech with a dark sense of humour replied.  
Still upright, but not quite as proudly as before, Sachiel stood. A deep crack ran down the left side of it's mask, and the missing tooth-like projection from the bottom-right side was obvious, especially with the rough line along which it had broken away.  
Sachiel lifted it's self back to it's proud pose, and generated it's AT field. 'So it's going to be the hard way, is it?' The Angel silently mused.  
Shinji ignored the voices telling him to raise his Eva's AT field, and followed his instincts. Lunging forwards with his newly won weapon, Unit One's arms sailed through Sachiel's AT field, though it's body was stuck on the other side.

"It's field will allow severed parts of it's own body back though it? That's... Interesting." Ritsuko said to herself, before Misato interrupted "That doesn't matter, that tooth was just for show, it'll be blunt!"  
Inside the plug, listening quietly, Shinji smiled. "A blunt object is just what I need right now."

Sticking it's makeshift weapon into the crack in Sachiel's mask, Shinji placed both the Eva's hands on one side of tooth, before leaning into it as much as the Angel's AT field would allow.  
Slowly but surely, the left hand side of Sachiel's mask started to come away, before it broke off altogether, revealing the bare musculature, mad eye, and needle-like tooth-filled grin that it had hidden. The upper-right hand side of the mask was still intact, coving the Angel's other mad, leering, eye. Ignoring all of this, and just now noticing the second mask on the Angel's upper body, Shinji started work on that.  
Vaguely hearing calls of 'No, get to work on the Core!' Shinji contemplated changing target, but before he could stop prying at the other mask, it fell off under the little stress that he'd already put onto it, revealing a skull, with a rounded, needle-filled Jaw, and two hollow eye-sockets. The skull was only loosely connected to the rest of the angel, with the rear of it just half-embedded in it's flesh. It seemed dead, discarded. Staring at it, Shinji ignored the living head. That was a mistake.

"Energy build up! In the eyes!"  
snapping his Eva's head around to look at the Angel's other face, Shinji almost didn't notice the skull turn to follow his motions. Almost. The Skull struck the remaining portion of Sachiel's mask, and almost without thinking, Shinji made his Eva pick it up after it had hit the ground, and place it over his missing head armour. That saved his Eva's head from the energy blast.  
What it also did, however, was start to convert the Eva's flesh to something else entirely, and fuse the portion of the mask onto it's face.  
"Contamination spreading into the Eva's head!"  
The readouts were interrupted momentarily by Ritsuko's voice. "It's still alive? The mask, the old skull? All of it? Is that even possible?"  
From there the situation only became more worrying.  
"Synchronisation is rejecting remote orders for artificial percentage drop or termination!"  
"Mental contamination possible!"  
"We are reading several feedback loops in the synchrograph!"  
"Pilot's mind has been breached!"

Shinji was sitting in his back garden. The breeze was blowing through, softly, kindly. He couldn't remember how he'd got there. But it was nice, and he didn't want to remember whatever had happened before.  
No, wait. That wasn't him speaking. Even pain has a place in the world. Even sadness. They helped people grow, become more, and learn from the past. Where had he just been?  
He focused, casting his mind back. He'd gone out in NERV's shiny new bio-mech to fight an alien.  
Then what? Had it handed his ass to him on a silver platter? No, that wasn't it. He could remember most of the fight, but not the end. How had it ended? Was it still going on now?  
That was when he saw him, the man from 6 years ago, walking towards him. Except, he was wearing a mask, as white as bleached bone, which was covering most of his face except his long, messy, brown hair, and his deep blue eyes.  
Standing up, Shinji went to greet him. "I take it that you're the Angel?"  
The man nodded, then spoke in his own voice, though the words were not his words.  
"I took this form as it is the only other life-form vastly different from your own biology that you had spoken to. The mask was to help you identify me, though your biological monstrosity now looks more like this form than I do. I feel you deserve a chance to converse with me, at least, even if my bothers and sisters may not extend your kind the same courtesy. I am Sachiel, Son of Adam, or in the terms that your people chose to use, an Angel. I seek only to survive, as your people do also, especially after what they did 15 years ago. Though our survivals and not necessarily mutually exclusive I can only feel that should we live, your kind shall die out though the means of our survival. I can understand why your people would want to stop me and my brethren, however, I ask that you also see that we fight your people for a similar reason in the first place. I regret the killings that must take place for the sake of survival, but they must be made if we are to survive."  
Shinji smiled. "It's nice to have an enemy that can be civil, but you understand that I can't just let you try to do something that may well kill off Humanity. I'd rather die trying to stop you than let you walk past me."  
The man nodded. "I can see your viewpoint, as I also would rather die in combat trying to accomplish my goals than stand aside and let them go unfulfilled."  
Shinji felt the soft breeze once more though his hair. He was content. He could just wait here, in his or the Angel's mind, and let it pass. But that wasn't who he was. "I'll see you back on the battlefield then."  
The man hung his head. "I was hoping you would stay here, it'd be much less painful than for me to press my advantage. My mask is presently attacking your monstrosity's anatomy, and you really have no way to stop it."  
As he finished talking, the man turned his head slightly, at the same time, Shinji felt someone, or something, else appear behind him and to the left. He tried to turn, but found that he could not.  
He heard a voice, a voice that was almost bank, but that at the same time sounded fairly familiar.  
"I am afraid that you are mistaken, fair son of Adam, we can still fight your mask, and fight you. I shall face you back in the real world. You have troubled this child enough."  
The mask twisted into a smile. "You really are rather determined and considerate people. Try if you will, I would rather die to a worthy foe who fought well than leave them defenceless outside of their body to merely watch me pass as I survive. Maybe my sense of honour is what will cause me to die, but I know that some others of my kind lack it. I would rather win fairly in a desperate fight for survival than use underhanded methods, and I would rather choose just how my kind survives than the heartless others, but if they succeed, so be it, and so on your heads be it."  
The voice behind Shinji was resolute. "If you fail, then we shall make sure that the others do also. Fair-well, son of Adam. And Shinji?"  
Shinji still couldn't turn to the voice, no matter how he tried, so he could only reply to the questioning tone. "Yes?"  
"You've fought well. But now, you deserve a break. If you would rather not see the fight, I can render you unconscious."  
Smiling, Shinji shook his head. "I think I'll be fine watching, thanks."  
Misato was worried. There had been no movement at all. Not from the Angel, Eva-01, or Shinji. not so much as a blink in the past minute, maybe two minutes. Then it all returned at once. The contamination reverted, the Eva slowly returning to it's original biology, before slowly converting the mask. The Angel's two head merged, forming one head, covered in places with armour-like plates of bone. The mental intrusion receded and Shinji woke up. Then he took his hands off of the controls, and stretched, saying; "Right then Eva Unit-01, show me how you intend to fight."  
Misato turned to the screens monitoring him. "What do you mean, the Eva can't fight on it's own! Shinji, pull yourself together!"  
That was when one of the techs announced that pilot synchronisation had dropped, and that the Eva was no longer under his, or indeed their, control.  
Sachiel smiled to himself as the Eva's improvised weapon bounced off of it's newly modified AT filed before the Eva deployed it's own, and neutralised his. He kept smiling though. This was a foe he could happily lose to.  
The techs kept relaying information, but it was not much use. After a while, some of them just resorted to doing what Shinji was doing, cheering for good shots made by his Eva, and pointing out where it could have reacted better.  
They didn't join in something else he was doing though. Applauding the Angel on it's good blows.

Ah, so it's come to this. Sachiel thought. I still have one thing that I can do though. Looking into the Eva's eyes, as it stood triumphant above him, ready to kill him, he reached out. Good luck, he thought out to his foe and the thing's pilot, _and goodbye_, he concluded, releasing the energy that he had been building in his core. The Eva's AT field stopped neutralising his, and turned inwards, focusing the blast around itself and upwards, away from the city.  
Smiling, Shinji reached out with his mind. He found it easier to synch with the Eva now, trying seemed to make it harder, so he just relaxed in the plug. He remembered that he'd fought the angel best when he had forgotten that he was piloting anything, and instead seen the Eva as an extension of his will. On the edge of his consciousness he thought he heard a voice. "I fought beside you today, but I cannot fight beside you always. Sometimes you will need me. When you do, I will stand beside you. But sometime you will not need me, and at those times, I shall be silent." Shinji nodded, and he felt the Eva nod too. "Fair-well" the voice softly uttered. He was alone in the Eva again.  
He was in control again.

"Synchrograph returning to normal."  
"Pilot stable."  
Misato sighed as she tried to take in what she'd just seen. Shinji had succeeded in piloting Unit One on his first outing, he'd fought the Angel without any weapons, he'd made the nature of the AT fields a bit clearer. Glancing at Ritsuko, who's face was plastered with a bad mood, Misato corrected that statement. Shinji had made the nature of the AT fields a bit less clear, he'd handed his Eva it's own controls and he'd gain respect for, possibly even encountered the mind of, an Angel.

"So, old friend," Shinji whispered in to himself in the entry plug. "What do you say to that?"  
Silence followed. He thought back to the voice he'd heard earlier, before being sent out to battle, but on refection, he probably hadn't actually heard it. Maybe it was his self-confidence taking on someone else' voice.  
Sighing, Shinji relaxed in the entry plug's sleek pilot's chair. "Except for you, dear Eva, when you can aid me, I guess I am in this alone."

* * *

**A note on the plot:**

I'd first intended for Sachiel to be a cruel angel, and for his mask to cause permanent damage to 01, but on reflection I didn't like that, and as such, this happened. To anyone wondering why I decided to do what I did with the Sachiel's mask (and will do with the masks of the other angels in future), it's basically because I haven't seen it done before, and I wanted to voice my opinion on just what they are, and why they're there. As ever, criticism is greatly appreciated. -willoffire.3264


End file.
